The present invention relates generally to transporting stringed musical instruments. Transporting stringed musical instruments is an endeavor with many perils. This is especially true for stringed musical instruments such as guitars, cellos, violas, violins, and basses. Because these instruments have elongated necks with tensed, exposed strings extending between the neck and the body, they are extremely susceptible to imprudent handling. However, those desiring to transport their instruments are not entirely without recourse.
Transporting stringed musical instruments in hard shell cases does help alleviate several of the problems associated with travel. Unfortunately, for some instruments, such as the upright bass, these hard shell cases are often too bulky to fit in cars. Moreover, air travel is no less vexatious. The hard shell cases are typically larger than the mandates, promulgated by the air lines, concerning carry-on baggage. However, even if the instrument is allowed on the airplane, whether as carry-on baggage or stored in the cargo compartment, transporting it in a hard shell case does not ensure that it will arrive at its destination undamaged.
Another option is traveling with the musical instrument in a soft bodied bag. Although these soft travel bags maybe accommodable in places the hard shell cases are not, they offer very little protection. A third option is to rent an instrument at your destination. In addition to expending funds to rent an instrument, rental instruments are often of inferior quality, dissimilarly configured, and of unfamiliar “feel.”
Thus, what is needed is a stringed musical instrument that collapses into a completely self-contained enclosure. Allowing the instrument to collapse into a smaller form factor alleviates many of the problems discussed above. Additionally, it would be desirable to have a collapsible instrument that securely stores all of the components removed during the collapsing process. Furthermore, it would be expedient for the collapsible instrument to retain sound characteristics similar to those of its standard, non-collapsible counterparts. The problematic nature of traveling with stringed musical instruments is not a conundrum that has gone unnoticed. Prior attempts to solve this dilemma are described below.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,353,164 issued Mar. 5, 2002 to Stephen David Corsi discloses a stringed instrument with a neck pivotally attached to the body so as to allow the neck to rotate from an extended playing position to a folded traveling position.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,025,548 issued Feb. 15, 2000 to Raymond Seth Ehrlich discloses an acoustic guitar having a body divided into an upper and lower half, and a detachable neck. The upper and lower halves may be separated to allow the detachable neck to stow therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,390,578 issued Feb. 21, 1995 to Thomas G. Raymer discloses a guitar having a pivotally mounted neck that may pivot from a normal playing position to a fully stowed position within the perimeter of the guitar body. The guitar body contains a recess complementary to the neck in which the neck is received, after the neck pivots inside the perimeter of the guitar, so that the guitar is then in a travel configuration.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,385 issued Jan. 24, 1995 to Clifford W. Gilbert discloses a multi-segmented articulatable guitar having a neck pivotally attached wherein the neck is able to pivot towards the playing face of the guitar body and rest thereon.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,233,896 issued Aug. 10, 1993 to Bradford P. Worthington and Christian Allgor also discloses a stringed instrument having a neck pivotally connected to the body wherein the neck is allowed to pivot from a playing position over towards the playing face of the stringed instrument and rest thereon.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,686,882 issued Aug. 18, 1987 to Eric D. Shaw also discloses an acoustic guitar having a neck pivotally attached to the guitar body so as to allow the neck to pivot over onto the soundboard portion of the body.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,073,211 issued Feb. 14, 1978 to Allan C. Jorgensen describes a guitar having a hinged neck and a recess in the body of the guitar shaped to receive the neck when the neck folds towards the back portion of the guitar on its pivot.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,191,085 issued Mar. 4, 1980 to Bradley N. Litwin discloses a stringed musical instrument having three detachable portions-the sound box, the neck, and a removable portion of the upper surface of the sound box. The upper surface of the sound box can be removed allowing the detachable neck to be stored inside the sound box.
Although the prior art discloses a plethora of collapsible stringed music instruments, none provide a collapsible stringed musical instrument that is travel friendly; completely self contained; preserves the rich sound characteristics of a standard, non-folding acoustic musical instrument; and transitions from a collapsed travel form into a playing configuration, and vice versa, without requiring special skills or the aid of any tools.